Alan Deyermond

Alan Deyermond

Alan David Deyermond (born February 24, 1932 in Cairo , † September 19, 2009 ) was a British Romance studies , university professor and the best known European expert on Spanish literature in the High and Late Middle Ages .

biography

Career as a university lecturer

After visiting the Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool and the Victoria College in Jersey , he studied at Pembroke College of Oxford University and received his first in 1953 a Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Bachelor of Literature in 1957 (B.Litt.). In the year it was founded in 1955, he became a teaching fellow at the Spain department of Westfield College at the University of London and at that time was the only employee in this department besides John Varey . He taught half of the curriculum, history, medieval literature, and poetry of the Golden Age in Spanish.

This extensive teaching activity did not limit his research work, however, and the growing number of his publications led to the fact that he was initially awarded the title Reader / Principal Lecturer in 1966 . In 1969 he finally accepted the call of professor with his own chair at Westfield College. In the next few years he was also a professor at Princeton University and taught at the two universities every six months. After the founding of Queen Mary and Westfield College in 1989, he took up his professorship at this university and continued teaching until his retirement in 1997.

Publications

His special subjects within the medieval studies of Spain were La Celestina , with which he already dealt in his dissertation and which was published in 1961 under the title The Petrarchan Sources of "La Celestina" and in 1971, notably, a second edition appeared.

The enormous breadth and depth of his research and publishing encompassed nearly all literary aspects of medieval literature and culture in Spain. This range appeared in A Literary History of Spain: The Middle Ages (1971), which is used by generations of university students and scholars in its English-language original and in its Spanish-language translation Historia de la literatura española, I: La Edad Media .

He also dealt in Epic Poetry and the Clergy: Studies on the "Mocedades de Rodrigo" (1969) and in El " Cantar de Mio Cid " y la Epica medieval española (1987) with the epic and in Tradiciones y puntos de vista en la ficción sentimental (1993) with sentimental stories . In addition to missing literature in La literatura perdida de la Edad Media castellana: catálogo y estudio, I: épica y romances (1995), he also dealt with women's literature , the Chronica Naierensis and Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada .

In their entirety, Deyermond's three dozen books and his more than 200 specialist essays dealt with all the main and numerous subsidiary works of the Spanish Middle Ages.

Deyermond was not only a prolific researcher and writer, but also a promoter of the work of other scholars as an editor and through his seminars. In 1968 he founded the Spanish Medieval Research Institute (MHRS) at Westfield College, which was subsequently attended by researchers from all over the world. Based on the MHRS, he has published more than 60 extensive specialist publications. In addition, he played a key role in founding specialist books such as Tamesis Books and Research Bibliographies & Checklists .

honors and awards

For his achievements he was awarded honorary doctorates from Oxford University, the University of Valencia and Georgetown University . He was also a fellow of the British Academy and a few months before his death was appointed one of the few corresponding members of the Real Academia Española . In 1994 he was awarded the Nebrija Prize, which is awarded annually by the University of Salamanca to the non-Spanish scholar who has contributed most to the understanding of Spanish culture and language.

His importance for Hispanic and medieval studies also led to the presidency of the Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas from 1992 to 1995 , of which he subsequently became honorary president for life. He also became president of the International Courtly Literature Society in 1983 and an honorary member of the Asociación Hispánica de Literatura Medieval in 1985 . Since 1999 he has been an Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London.

literature

• Nicholas G. Round: Alan David Deyermond, 1932-2009 . In: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy . tape XII , 2013, p. 79-122 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Web links

• THE SUNDAY TIMES: Professor Alan Deyermond: Professor of Hispanic Studies (October 20, 2009)